Best car I've ever owned by a lot.
People sure do get mad about Blutooth.
Also, at least they're able to have a 'software direction'. Not aware of any other manufacturer who provides anywhere near this level of OTA upgrades.
And obviously the autopilot team is a different one than the people installing games. Chill.
But because it is a Tesla you are dismissing all the issues and sell it as the best car ever. This wouldn't fly with any other car. If you spent 50k$ on a Audi with poor quality you would probably complain about it.
It is a pattern I see with nearly all the other TM3 owners that dismiss every single issue.
Really trying to understand but what is so different with a Tesla? Is it the Hype factor? The feeling to be in a religious group?
Add to the above the following positives, and you can get an idea why model 3 owners might be ok dealing with a few negatives.
self driving features, ota updates, top safety ratings, pre-cool/heat interior (and now defrost with v10) from app, regenerative braking for one pedal driving, brake pads last longer, low maint costs, lowering overall tco
- Buying experience is so much more pleasant - set price and no pressure
- Service experience has been great - much better than Ford or Mercedes. Mercedes is good, but every time we take it in they want a small fortune for this or that - you really get the sense that it's a profit center, whereas Tesla is not like this
- No more gas stations - full charge every day, and superchargers make trips and range anxiety a non-issue (owned a Ford EV previously and it sucked in this regard), and overall electricity costs are much lower than gas
- We both love the user interface - as easy and intuitive as an iPad. I don't miss the buttons, and it's so much easier to use than the Mercedes or Ford infotainment systems - and integrated connectivity and OTA updates are superior to those systems as well.
- Fast and fun to drive - handles well
- Lots of room for trips - frunk, trunk, rear facing seats - the P85+ is a great family car - we've done road trips with 4 kids, dog and luggage no problem
- I like the styling - P85+ with chrome delete and 21s looks really great
- Less environmental impact - I support Tesla's mission and enjoy doing a small part to combat global warming and advance EV adoption
- I enjoy the gimmicky stuff - games, whoopee cushion
- Much less maintenance (except for the darn 21" tires), no oil changes, and over the lifespan of the car I believe maintenance costs will be much lower
I will say that build quality is subpar - the Mercedes is notably better in this regard - very nice. Additionally, I don't trust autopilot for anything but long road trips (it's excellent for that), it's tried to kill me too many times - I think the marketing hype is way ahead of actual capabilities.
What about in heavy traffic situations? Is autopilot practical for that? I tried to get the driver assistant package (adaptive cruise and lane keeping) for my bmw x4 3 years ago. It was being marketed as good for stop & go situations. But when I talked to the rep, he strongly recommended against it, saying the tech is all right but most drivers would not bother using it. I guess the same can be said about auto parking.
It's really not that we're dismissing issues. I think it's just that these cars get so much right and just have a different philosophy about how cars should work that the little things that annoy people tend to stick out for them a lot.
I have driven lots of luxury cars, owned BMWs, and am a pretty big technophile. There is not a question in my mind that the Teslas are the best cars I've ever owned or had to pleasure of driving. It sounds like the parent that you're claiming we'd be like if it was any other car is upset about the car he was hoping he'd eventually get as opposed to the car he actually got. I don't think any other car, regardless of price, ever gets any better or changes after you buy it. That alone makes the statement a little ridiculous, in my mind.
Tesla is the opposite of Linux philosophy.
If you are really trying to understand, why don't you test drive one? Only then will you truly know. Having owned a Model S (traded it in for a Model 3) and X.
There is no way I will buy any other car. Maybe if MB, BMW or Audi leapfrogs Tesla in both charging infrastructure and software features. But frankly with the velocity of how quickly Tesla releases new features for FREE, I'm not holding my breath.
I think this is the wrong perspective. Daimler, BMW, Volkswagen, and others are investing in common charging infrastructure through joint ventures such as Ionity (https://ionity.eu/en/about.html). Ionity is available to all EVs that can charge via CCS (which includes Teslas).
ICE cars can be fueled at any fuel station regardless of their make and model. EVs should also be able to charge at any charging station regardless of the brand.
Tesla says its mission is to "accelerate the advent of sustainable transport". If that's true then when will Tesla convert their fast chargers to CCS and allow all EVs to charge at them?
There's probably some issues but none that I care about. It feels like driving the future. It's an absolute joy to drive.
No gas stations is pretty nice too.
See, this worries me. Almost all of the Model 3 owners I know tell me that not supporting bluetooth features isn't a big deal because they can safely use their phone while driving. This is completely false. When I last drove in a friend's Model 3 he had to make several manual corrections while using auto pilot on California highways; it's still not good enough for people to be messing with their phone while driving.
Please, don't use your phone while driving.
That said, I would probably trade it in for a Model S 7-seater if it did cost the same here :)
And the nag / inability to sense the presence of hands on wheel... to put it mildly, I would pay a lot of money to revert my AP software.
Maybe you can give me examples of other cheaper cars that might have some of the same things I like. But I am pretty happy with my purchase. Do I think I am in some kind of religious group? I don't think so, but may be I am wrong.
This all feels like reactions I hear when I tell tech bros that I like Apple products. It just feels like people take this shit really seriously.
Right now, in the UK, the Tesla Model 3 is the only option that (i) is 100% electric, (ii) can go from e.g. London to Edinburgh with one charge stop, and (iii) can fit in a standard UK size garage. There are simply no other cars available in the UK at the moment that meet these 3 basic requirements. There are others coming close, e.g. the Jaguar iPace, and some due soon that might meet them fully, e.g. the Volkswagen ID.3 due next year, but right now if these are your requirements you have no other choice. That makes it pretty different, in fact unique. To use the Apple analogy, it would be like if the iPhone was the only smartphone that could last a day without recharging and fit in your pocket, so if you had one (and also believed that one day everyone with feature phones would replace them with smartphones that could fit in your pocket) then that might make you feel ahead of the curve, and you might even be more forgiving if basic functionality like copy and paste wasn't yet available.
I drove one for a couple days. It is a nice experience but a very early product that is far from perfect and the finish was what I would have expected for a cheap Toyota.
And they probably would if the sales volumes and customer upgrade timeframes were anywhere NEAR what they were for phones and tablets.
Nobody wants to look like they pissed their money away so popular expensive stuff gets the benefit of the doubt whether it deserves it or not. For example:
When your Tesla has a shitty interface it's your fault for being too dumb to use it right. When your BMW makes you go through one too many menus to change the GPS routing preferences it's the Germans over-complicating things.
When your S10 snaps in half it's a piece of shit. When your Tacoma snaps in half it's the government's fault for salting the road
When you break a Harbor Freight wrench the wrench sucks. When you break a Snap On you were abusing it.
When the server misunderstands what you said at a 5-star restaurant its your fault for not being clear. When the server at the burger joint does it they're an idiot.
When something is spilled at Whole Foods they haven't cleaned it up yet. When something is spilled at Walmart it's because the store is a dump.
When someone breaks into your car in SF it's because they need to feed their family. When someone's breaks into your car in Buffalo it's because Buffalo is too dysfunctional to control crime.
I'm generalizing a bit here with these examples but you get the point.
I have a model y on order, but if they can't figure out infotainment soon I'll likely cancel it. I spend way too much time driving to deal with garbage infotainment.
If for some reason I'm not driving and I'm still sitting in the car, I'm probably on a conference call.
